Dreams of the Ink
by Demirari
Summary: Ink Print, a young stallion with hopes and dreams high as the heavens travel to the city of opportunities. In the city that never slumbers, will he accomplish his goals? Will he make a name for himself, or will he be cast away in the crowds as another regular pony? Manehattan only greets this pony with disinterest.


Act I

Chapter I: Welcome to the Big Apple

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Hello, this is a fanfiction and as such, I do not own this. It belongs to Hasbro and all that fun stuff. Anyways, please comment and constructive comments are always valuable.

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A train rapidly approached the Manehattan Train Station. The Manehattan Train Station was a large shining example of pony-engineering, its revolutionary design in glass paneling and steel beams gave it a distinct futuristic look. The train slowed down to a halt as it stopped in the train station. The doors slowly opened up as ponies rushed out of the boxes they were once sealed in. The station's loudness increased as ponies hurried to meet their friends, relatives, or are leaving, entering the train station.

It was like a giant ant farm as ponies rushed along.

One of the passengers of the train, Ink Print, woke up groggily from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes with his front hoofs, trying to speed up the startup process of his eyes. With a sudden glow, a giant suitcase floated gently right next to him. He slowly got out of his coach, much to the disappointment of his hind legs. Half asleep, he navigated his way toward the exit. Ink Print suddenly jolted as he stepped down from the train and onto the train station's marble floor. The difference between the height of the train and the train station were a mere 1/8th of an inch, but Ink Print's body found this unacceptable.

Ink Print immediately woke up from his deep trance as he looked around, wondering what jolted him. After spinning around a few circles, Ink Print thought it was nothing, believing that it was just his body acting strange, he continued on his path along the marble floor of the station. His body, however, was still confused with the sudden change of height and texture of the floor. Ink Print decided to walk around and slide, hoping to get his body refocused. Ignoring many of the ponies that were staring at him, he continued his motion. Hopefully, his body will refocus before he ends up in the New Pony Time's newspaper tomorrow.

Ink Print's body slowly readjusted to the floor change as he walked toward one of the exits after performing his sliding. Ink Print while walking, looked at the architecture of the station. Its pillars and glass walls amazed Ink Print for he had never seen such structure in his entire life. Coming from a small village, this was not much of a surprise. He had seen pictures of Manehattan, and even the station itself, but seeing it in his own two eyes just gave it a… how should he put it, it's like a WAZAM!

Luckily for Ink Print, he didn't hit anyone as he walked toward one of the exits unfocused. Sadly, a wall decided this was unacceptable and decided to ruin his luck as he slammed himself against one of the only few non-glass walls. Not even bothering to look to see what he had hit, he apologized and ran toward the exit, his hooves are a blur as he tried to escape embarrassment.

His actions gave the nearby ponies a pause, especially a filly and her mother. The filly turned to her mother and asked, "Mother, why did that pony apologize to the wall?"

"Just ignore that unicorn, dear, just a crazy pony," the mother replied as the duo watched the unicorn, the mother being very concerned.

After escaping what would have been an awkward and a bad impression with the wall he had just bumped into, his eyes grew wide as he saw the city face to face. The roads were huge, could fit around twenty ponies side by side, he estimated, and the towers! The towers were so high that he had to stretch his neck to its breaking point to see the top. The roads were packed with ponies and carriages as the noises were at a high volume. It would be a lie if Ink Print wasn't feeling frightened of the city. Gulping, Ink Print took his first few steps into the city. _One small step for Ink Print, one giant leap in confidence_, Ink Print thought as he slowly tried to follow in sync of the citizens of the city.

"OY, WATCH IT!" a two-pony carriage yelled as one of the ponies driving it almost crashed into Ink Print. Ink Print managed to dodge the carriage as it passed by, yelling out apologies to the drivers. Noticing that he had gathered a small crowd, he tried to sink into the crowd, failing to do so horribly. Ink Print listened as ponies murmured about what could have been his ticket to the hospital.

_Damn that was close! _Ink Print thought as he searched for a restaurant or café to stop by, feeling hungry and wanting to calm himself down. Luckily, he found a small café huddled between two buildings. Fanning himself off with his hoof, he waited for one of the waiters or waitresses to come and take his order. While waiting for one of the workers to come and take his order, he looked around the café. It certainly wasn't new like the train station, but it certainly had that charm to it.

Before Ink Print could get into any more detail, one of the employees of the building came by and asked for his order. After stumbling around with the selection of coffee and delights, the waiter left. _I never knew that there so many types of coffee_! Ink Print thought as he waited for his order to be done. Looking outside from one of the windows of the café, he admired the skyscrapers. He felt a small blimp of pride in his chest, as he thought of how far ponykind had gotten to. Thinking of such thoughts, he was detached from the outside world, enjoying his inner and philosophical world.

"Sir, your order is done," one of the waitresses plainly stated as she placed down his order. "Sir?" the waitress asked again, Ink Print ignored her as he was in a deep trance from admiring his scenery and his thinking. Sighing, the waitress muttered to herself about tourists and newcomers, the waitress proceeded to raised one of her hooves and thumped Ink Print in the head. The waitress hoping that she got his attention and if she did, hopefully the pony would not explode into anger at her. The waitress repeated what she had said previously but was ignored, "Sir your order is done."

"Oh!" Ink Prink snapped out of his trance and responded with a high volume, "Oh right, sorry miss, was just admiring the city." The waitress nodded simply before departing, shaking her head as she went to converse with her colleagues. Nursing his newly gifted bruise, he tasted the coffee. _Mmmmmm_, Ink Print thought as he tasted the coffee, his eyes widen from the taste. It is as if he had never tasted coffee before. _This is really good!_ Ink Print thought to himself, his face beaming with happiness.

"Do you see that weirdo?" the same waitress said as her peers and herself stared at Ink Print enjoying his coffee. "It's as if he had never tasted coffee before!" the waitress exclaimed silently to her fellow coworkers. Her peers nodded in agreement as they simply stared at the Ink Print, the irony was not lost to one of them.

"Sunday's Taste, just chill, it's just a newcomer probably, you know how the big cities surprise those rural ponies," one of Sunday's Taste's coworker said as the group of employees continued to stare. Some of them nodded in agreement, it wasn't unusual for rural folks to be completely shocked and detached when they first see the city with their own eyes. Each one of these waiters and waitresses could easily recount a story of serving a pony that was awestricken by the city.

"I know, it's just that," Sunday's Taste replied as she pointed one of her hooves at Ink Print, "It's just that those ponies annoy me." The group nodded in agreement from her statement. The fact that the ponies would completely shut themselves from the outside world, making the waiters and waitresses jobs harder, where quite annoying. And that was an understatement.

Ink Print, oblivious to the small chatter from the waiters and waitresses, began to dig into his small slice of cake. Making a nice mmmmm sound, he started to dig into the small piece of cake mercilessly. _Even their cake is good_! Ink Print exclaimed to himself in his thoughts as he drank the coffee and ate the slices of cakes wildly. His eating habits during this time, was rather… disgusting. His civility was all but gone with the taste of coffee and cake from the small establishment. _I am loving it!_ Ink Print thought as he drank. His mind was simply in heaven from the taste as Ink Print kept stuffing pieces of cake after another into his mouth.

After twenty minutes of drinking and ravaging his slices of cakes, Ink Print left a large amount of bits that he calculated would be more than enough and left the store. Ink Print's suitcase following awkwardly into the bright and active city. Humming happily he walked down one of the roads toward who knows what. Then suddenly something snapped inside his mind, he needed to find an apartment to live in and fast. If he doesn't, he'll be sharing newspaper with hobos! Not that he's against hobos or anything.

"Oh dear, oh dear Celestia," Ink Print said to himself as he rushed toward a place where he hoped had a map. By now, the sun was starting to set as darkness approached. Thankfully, Lady Luck was in one of her rare 'good moods' and blessed Ink Print with ramming into an owner of a set of apartment buildings. The force of the impact caused them to fly opposite of each other.

"Hey watch it lad!" the pony that Ink Print just slammed into shouted. The pony started to rub the impact zone as he glared at Ink Print who was apologizing. The pony then continued with an angered tone, "In a rush are we?"

"Sorry sir," Ink Print apologized as he started to rub his own impact zone, "I'm truly sorry, I was just trying to find a residential map to find an apartment to live in."

"An apartment you say?" the pony asked as he slowly got up and offered a hoof to Ink Print. Normally, this would be the complete opposite, with Ink Print offering his hoof and not the other way around. Ink Print shook his head as he latched onto the hoof and slowly heaved himself upwards. The pony continued, "Well I do know a nice apartment complex not too far away from our current location."

"Really? Where is it?" Ink Print questioned as he dusted himself off. He then looked at the pony he was talking to. The pony was a green-maned, brown-coated earth pony. _Like nature_, Ink Print thought to himself.

"Why yes! It's somewhere over there!" the pony shouted as he pointed almost randomly toward the north. The pony then continued on, "And I'm Earthly Abode, landlord of the apartment that is… not in view right now." the now identified pony Earthly Abode trailed off awkwardly. There was an odd pause as the ponies stared at the direction Earthly Abode gave.

"Really? You're the landlord of an apartment complex? Can I rent a room then?" Ink Print asked, trying to break the silence.

Ink Print was right now excited, from the fact that he won't have to book a room at some hotel or motel, or sleep homelessly. Not that Ink Print would complain about spending money on a hotel/motel room. Sleeping in a room was better than sleeping without a roof, as the saying goes.

"Sure… by the way, what's your name?" Earthly Abode asked as he started to walk northern ward, motioning Ink Print to follow him.

"My name is Ink Print, nice to meet you!" Ink Print replied happily as he trailed behind Earthly Abode. The bruise that rested in his forehead was now all but gone, pushed back into his mind.

"Nice to meet you as well," Earthly Abode responded as the two made their way to Earthly Abode's currently non-visible apartment complex. It'll only take them twenty or so minutes to reach to Earthly Abode's complex, not that Ink Print would know of course. As the two departed, night slowly carcasses the sky, there were only a few hours left before midnight arrives. Luckily for Ink Print, he founded a roof to live under, as tonight, Manehattan was scheduled for a rainstorm.


End file.
